Experiential Orchestra And Chorus Present An Ethel Smyth Grammy Award Celebration Concert In NYC

Experiential Orchestra and Chorus, led by Music Director James Blachly, will celebrate its 2021 Grammy win as well as being named a finalist for a 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Award for their recording of Dame Ethel Smyth's The Prison (Chandos Records) with a concert on Saturday, January 29, 2022 at 8pm at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., NYC).

The performance will highlight the soloists, chorus, and orchestra that created this historic recording, which in 2021 won the first-ever Grammy for music by Smyth, who lived from 1858 to 1944 and struggled her entire career to have her music judged on its merits rather than on the basis of her gender. The Prison, a 64-minute vocal symphony, was Smyth's last work and her only symphony - she was 72 when she completed it in 1930. She stopped composing shortly after, due to advancing deafness.

Bass-baritone Dashon Burton and soprano Sarah Brailey, the soloists on the Award-winning album, will join Experiential Orchestra and Chorus and members of The Clarion Choir to perform selections from Smyth's The Prison on January 29. Burton will also perform songs by Schubert in orchestrations by Reger and Berlioz, and Brailey will perform Strauss's Four Last Songs. The chorus will offer additional selections, including Precious Lord by Thomas Dorsey, led by EXO Chorus Master Steven Fox, who will also be honored at the concert.

The program will include a discussion with both soloists and Dr. Amy Zigler, Ethel Smyth scholar, about Smyth's life and work, the impact of EXO's recording of The Prison on expanding the repertoire performed in concert halls, and the social and political implications of this recording being honored with a Grammy Award.

"The evening will be a combination of a festive celebration for our Grammy Award - the first time we have gathered the full orchestra and chorus since we made that recording - and an exquisite concert, curated with our two soloists, Dashon and Sarah," says EXO Music Director James Blachly. "When performances shut down last year, the score I put on the piano during those months more than any other was Strauss's Four Last Songs, and as the pandemic got worse and wore on, I kept returning to this music. Speaking with Dashon, we discussed the Schubert songs in that same way. The Smyth is about both love and death, and also about purpose through music, so as we celebrate this Grammy, we want to share a program of music that has in common this thread: music that makes life worth living."

Bass-baritone soloist Dashon Burton says, "It is an honor to have taken part in such a vitally important recording. I am most grateful for the Grammy Award, because it brings Smyth's titanic work to as many ears and hearts as possible."

Soprano Sarah Brailey says, "Strauss's Four Last Songs are profoundly moving pieces, and they are really at the pinnacle of the repertoire for soprano. Having the chance to perform this music with these dear colleagues - after a period of such immense loss - and also to be able to revisit the Smyth, will be such a joy."

"It was a great joy to record Ethyl Smyth's The Prison with such wonderful colleagues," says EXO Chorus Master Steven Fox says. "The chorus and I enjoyed Smyth's dramatic choral writing from the very first rehearsal, and we are all very honored to be a part this recording that introduced the piece to so many people."

EXO General Manager Lee Ramsey adds, "This ambitious project was seeded by a Kickstarter campaign in 2018, and included the generous contributions of more than 150 people. It is an incredible feeling to now be able to gather and celebrate this historic recording and first Grammy Award for the work of Dame Ethel Smyth. We are so grateful to all of our supporters and collaborators who came together to make the dream of this recording a reality."

About the Artists & Guests:

The Experiential Orchestra was founded by conductor James Blachly as a way to invite audiences more deeply into the sound and powerful experience of the orchestra. Their Grammy-winning world-premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth's The Prison (1930) was critically acclaimed in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The orchestra is drawn from top-level New York freelancers, many of whom are soloists in their own right, or members of other elite ensembles. EXO's recent performance of the music of Arvo Pärt at The Metropolitan Museum of Art was hailed by Musical America as "laudable" and "technically immaculate."

In addition to giving its signature concerts at Lincoln Center, EXO prepares innovative programs which have invited audiences to dance to Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps and Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, welcomed them to sit and lie down inside the orchestra itself, surrounded them with thirty-six oboes and bassoons in performances of music by Lully and Rameau, and performed Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with original circus choreography by The Muse in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Recent concerts have been presented at Roulette and National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Lincoln Center with Young Patrons of Lincoln Center, Americas Society, and in partnership with Musicambia and Groupmuse at the Masonic Temple; concerts have also been presented at Penn State University, American University, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

James Blachly is a Grammy-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. His world premiere recording of English composer Dame Ethel Smyth's 1930 masterpiece The Prison, released on Chandos Records, won a 2021 Grammy Award and was widely acclaimed. He currently serves as Music Director of Experiential Orchestra, is entering his sixth season as Music Director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra (PA), and is in increasing demand as a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire, with appearances this season with the New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a residency at Montclair State University. Blachly serves as Associate Editor and Orchestral Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, directed by Dr. Louise Toppin. Blachly's innovative programming aims to increase audience engagement and empower audiences. With the Johnstown Symphony, he conducted the orchestra in a former steel mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric's America Inside Out, and in three seasons the orchestras has increased season ticket sales by 43%; with the Experiential Orchestra, he has invited audiences to dance to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, sit within the orchestra at Lincoln Center, and engage with Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography in an ongoing collaboration with The Muse in Brooklyn. A strong supporter of composers of our time, Blachly has commissioned and premiered more than 50 works from composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Courtney Bryan, Kirsten Vollness, Viet Cuong, Michi Wiancko, Kate Copeland Ettinger, Patrick Castillo, Brad and Doug Balliett, and many others. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with soloists Julia Bullock, Paul Jacobs, Michelle Cann, Andrés Cárdenes, Michael Chioldi, Karen Kim, Andrew Yee, Owen Dalby, Janna Baty, and more. Dedicated to finding new ways of empowering audiences, he is also in demand as a speaker on Listening as Leadership, bringing his expertise as a conductor and passion for music to Fortune 500 companies, schools, and other organizations.

Sarah Brailey enjoys a career filled with a plethora of diverse projects including soloing in Handel's Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing with Kanye West and Roomful of Teeth at the Hollywood Bowl, and recording cello and vocal soundscapes for the 2018 Fog x FLO Fujiko Nakaya public art installation in Boston's Emerald Necklace park system. She has been hailed by The New York Times for her "radiant, liquid tone," "exquisitely phrased," and "sweetly dazzling singing" and by Opera UK for "a sound of remarkable purity." Recent memorable moments include serenading the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum with John Zorn's Madrigals, singing Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Colorado Symphony, and recording The Soul in the world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth's The Prison, for which she received the 2021 GRAMMY for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. She serves as the Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Chicago. In addition to co-founding Just Bach, a monthly concert series in Madison, Wisconsin, Brailey also serves as the Artistic Director of the Handel Aria Competition.

Bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the United States and Europe in key elements of his repertoire - Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passions and the B minor Mass, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Beethoven'a Ninth Symphony, the Brahms Requiem, Handel's Messiah, and Mozart's Requiem. He opened the 2021-22 season with the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston led by Marin Alsop for Beethoven Symphony No. 9 which he repeats later in the season with the Nashville Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero. Throughout the season he makes several notable orchestral debuts: the Chicago Symphony in Handel's Messiah led by Nicholas McGegan, the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Michael Tilson Thomas for his Rückert Lieder, the Pittsburgh Symphony for the Dvorak Te Deum led by Manfred Honeck, and the Verdi Requiem with the Seattle Symphony and Thomas Dausgaard. He continues his relationship with San Francisco Performances in appearances throughout the season and makes a debut with Celebrity Series of Boston in recital.

Dr. Amy E. Zigler is Assistant Professor of Music at Salem College. Her work examines (auto)biographical narratives in the music of the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on the life and music of Dame Ethel Smyth. She has published research on Smyth's chamber music, and she contributed biographical liner notes to the Grammy-award winning recording of Smyth's The Prison (2020). Dr. Zigler has presented at international and national conferences, served on the American Musicological Society's Committee on Women and Gender, and helps maintain the website, www.EthelSmyth.org.

One of the country's leading professional vocal ensembles, The Clarion Choir has performed on some of the great stages of North America and Europe. Their recent recording of Kastalsky's Requiem reached #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Charts and has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Choral Performance. The Clarion Choir made their Lincoln Center debut in 2011, performing Bach Chorales as part of the White Light Festival with organist Paul Jacobs. In 2014, the choir gave the New York premiere of Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg, and, in October of 2016, premiered the work in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London. Their performance was featured on PBS, and their recording of it, the Choir's debut recording, received a Grammy nomination as well as a nomination for BBC Music Magazine's Choral Award. The Choir's second recording, the world premiere recording of Alexander Kastalsky's Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, also was nominated for a Grammy for Best Choral Performance and was Editor's Choice in Gramophone. The Clarion Choir has performed regularly in recent years as part of the MetLiveArts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including performances of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters. The Choir, and artistic director Steven Fox, have collaborated in recent years with renowned artists such as Harry Bicket and The English Concert at Carnegie Hall, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights, Susan Graham, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala.

Steven Fox is Chorus Master for EXO Chorus, Music Director of Cathedral Choral Society and Artistic Director of The Clarion Choir & The Clarion Orchestra. He has conducted renowned ensembles such as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Portland's Cappella Romana, and Toronto's Theatre of Early Music. His performances have taken him to some of the most prestigious halls internationally, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, St. Petersburg's Grand Philharmonic Hall, the Hermitage Theater, Moscow's Rachmaninoff Hall, London's Duke's Hall, and the Vatican. Steven was named an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2010 "for significant contributions to his field in music," and has received Grammy nominations for his first three recordings: Steinberg's Passion Week (2016), Kastalsky's Memory Eternal (2018), and Kastalsky's Requiem (2020).

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